Purple Television

[August 31 2016] : art

Studio Visit : Jack Walls by Shane Gambill

“I was born an artist, I didn’t get started, there was nothing like getting started, it was just that’s what I was born as, I was born an artist,” says ‘insider, outsider’ artist Jack Walls in this Purple TV exclusive film. Shot by NYC-based filmmaker Shane Gambill, we are taken on a exploration of Walls’ work and studio shorty after an encounter with Gambill in Hudson NY. “We met in a bar and Jack was telling stories and talking shit, two things he is very good at, two things everyone loves to listen to. After having to endure my rendition of Hank Williams “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” Jack took Dylan (Kraus) and I back to his house to look at the work he was making,” explains Gambill. “There were these black and white paintings on stitched canvas, but the stitching gave it this weird texture that I really liked. It was like a high brow version of Leather Face from the film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but obviously more beautiful than frightening. I knew that I wanted to follow up and make a video for Jack. Though I loved the work, I also wanted an excuse to get to know this character, to see what makes him tick, listen to more stories, watch him as he paints, and then to listen to him explain the spoken word show he was about to do or the noise concert he just did.”

Jack Walls will show his series of new paintings at Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson NY. The show will exhibit a new series, “NEGATIVES”, a reductive revision of his inspired heads whereby surfaces are stitched together from bits and pieces of canvas before gessoed and painted in black and white. “NEGATIVES” runs from August 31st – October 16th, with an artist reception on September 3rd from 5-7pm, at Carrie Haddad Gallery, 622 Warren Street, Hudson NY.